Creamers are widely used as whitening agents with hot and cold beverages such as, for example, coffee, cocoa, tea, etc. They are commonly used in place of milk and/or dairy cream. Creamers may come in a variety of different flavors and provide mouthfeel, body, and a smoother texture. Creamers can be in liquid or powder forms. A liquid creamer may be intended for storage at ambient temperatures or under refrigeration, and should be stable during storage without phase separation, creaming, gelation and sedimentation. The creamer should also retain a constant viscosity over time. When added to cold or hot beverages such a coffee or tea, the creamer should dissolve rapidly, provide a good whitening capacity, and remain stable with no feathering and/or sedimentation while providing a superior taste and mouthfeel.
Emulsions and suspensions are not thermodynamically stable, and there is a real challenge to overcome physico-chemical instability issues in the liquid creamers that contain oil and other insoluble materials, especially for the aseptic liquid creamers during long storage times at ambient or elevated temperatures. Moreover, over time, creaming that can still be invisible in the liquid beverages stored at room and elevated temperatures can cause a plug in the bottle when refrigerated. Furthermore, chemical instability issues such as oxidation result in lower quality product and shorter shelf life.
Conventionally, low molecular emulsifiers, such as e.g. mono- and diglycerides, are added to non-dairy liquid creamers to ensure stability of the oil-in-water emulsion. Low molecular weight emulsifiers are effective stabilisers of the oil-in-water emulsion, but may be perceived as artificial by consumers. Hydrocolloids such as kappa-carragenan, iota-carragenan, and/or lambda-carragenan; starch; cellulose, e.g. microcrystalline cellulose, methyl cellulose, or carboxy-methyl cellulose; agar-agar; gelatine; gellan (e.g., high acyl, low acyl); guar gum; gum Arabic; kojac; locust bean gum; pectin; sodium alginate; maltodextrin; tracaganth; xanthan; or a combination thereof may be used in liquid creamers to obtain desired mouthfeel and viscosity but have not been shown to produce sufficient emulsion stability to replace low molecular emulsifiers.
Modified starches are normally used in products where a high viscosity and a high degree of texture is desired, e.g. in instant desserts, pizza toppings, frozen foods, ice-cream, frozen cakes, dry mixes (cupcakes, muffins, cakes, cookies, self-saucing puddings), flavoured toppings and sauces, mayonnaises, snacks and muesli bars, and gravies.
Oil bodies obtained from oilseeds have been exploited for a variety of applications in biotechnology. These applications are based on their non-coalescing nature, ease of extraction and presence of unique membrane proteins oleosins. In suspension, oil bodies exist as separate entities and, hence, they may be used in a wide variety of products, ranging from vaccines, food, cosmetics and personal care products (S. C. Bhatla, V. Kaushik, and M. K. Yadav). Use of oil bodies and oleosins in recombinant protein production and other biotechnological applications is disclosed in Biotechnology Advances, 2010.
EP 0 986 309 B1 patent describes emulsions which comprise oil bodies. Disclosed is also a method for preparing the emulsions and the use of emulsions in high viscous products. These products have no issue with emulsion stability of the products, e.g. fat separation/creaming.
The above-discussed publications are silent about how to provide a stable product with demands such as low viscosity matrix, ability to dilute, perform at high temperature and in conditions from neutral to acid pH, and with high mineral content such as may be required for a liquid creamer.
In addition to the low molecular emulsifiers some non-dairy liquid creamers are made using addition of whitening agent/color (usually titanium dioxide) which is used in the creamer to provide a required whitening capacity when added to beverages (coffee, tea, and like). This is particular the case for fat free or low fat non-dairy liquid creamers. These whitening agents may be perceived as artificial by consumers. There is a need for alternative ingredients i.e. emulsifiers and colors, to provide stable product with required whitening capacity.
In view of the previous discussion, there are numerous challenges in creating a liquid creamer without low molecular emulsifiers, which is homogeneous, shelf-stable, and shows good physical and chemical stability.